Using Googles Search Results October 3, 2009

I recently had the opportunity to observe another person’s behaviour with a set of google’s search results.

He had approached a friend with a question and said that he could only find lots of results of other people who also had the same problem – he had not yet been able to find anyone who had a solution.

My suggestion was to add the word “solution” to his search terms.
I went with him to his computer and observed.

The first thing I noticed was that he specifically used the “+” feature.
While I am very aware of this feature in the search, I rarely use it, as I seem to be able to find a useful result quite often without it. I’m more likely to use the “-” feature.

The second thing I noticed was his (seeming) instant dismissal of what I would have clicked on – forum posts. True, the description of those forum threads that are displayed by the google search results are typically merely stating the problem, but often the solution is also there.

Other factors led us to leave the problem and not do further searching that evening, however, my observations of the interactions with the search results fascinated me. They showed me how differently people think and how differently they respond to the same set of information.